If Metro Atlanta didn't Exist, what 2nd Tier would be the Power House of the State if any?

[Fountain-of-youth]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

F-o-Y,

I for one really loved looking through the photo spread.

What I don't understand .... going back to the original topic.... is why does and old picture of a small hydroelectric dam, which is something that dots the South thanks to the WPA, say it all for Columbus?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columb...trial_District

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by Fountain-of-youth

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columb...trial_District

??

[aries4118]

Savannah?

https://www.city-data.com/forum/city-...l#post48531653

[GreenBrown77]

Very interesting aspects to this question:

Without Atlanta (for whatever reason), would Georgia have still developed into one of the strongest economies of the Southern states? And there we have to speculate whether we would have gone:

A) The North Carolina route (stronger economy and population growth but spread among several sort-of equal-weight cities)

B) The South Carolina route (weaker economy and population grown but spread among several sort-of equal-weight cities)

C) The Mississippi route (very poor, little population and one weak major city)

So that's one variable/question.

OR ...

D) The Georgia Route but with a different city at the helm (one dominant city driving the economy and population growth for much of the state).

And then the question becomes: Which city would that have been?

I really have no real strong feeling whether Georgia would have been a leader in economic growth and population growth without Atlanta. There did seem to be some unique factors at play in the 20th century that I'm not sure would have been replicated in another Georgia city. But if they had been ...


1. I agree with the other poster that Savannah would have continued to have the same limitations that other port cities in the South did after the Civil War. So not Savannah.

2. That leaves Augusta / Macon / Columbus / Athen as the next logical contenders. It seems to me Macon, at least geography wise, had the potential to fill the void. Now whether it could have had the leadership, that's another question.

3. Finally, I'm going to throw out dark horse candidate: The old state capital of Milledgeville. If the Atlanta experiment had been abandoned after the Civil War, I wonder if it might have had the human capital and centralized geography to have filled Atlanta shoes?

[Newsboy]

Folks forget that there were already plenty of people -- and cities or towns -- in the present-day Atlanta region before Atlanta came to be. Roswell, Marietta or Decatur likely would have become "Atlanta" had Atlanta never existed. The expansion of the railroads and the geography of North Georgia in relation to the rest of the state and southeast guaranteed that a large centrally located hub city would rise up eventually.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

Folks forget that there were already plenty of people -- and cities or towns -- in the present-day Atlanta region before Atlanta came to be. Roswell, Marietta or Decatur likely would have become "Atlanta" had Atlanta never existed. The expansion of the railroads and the geography of North Georgia in relation to the rest of the state and southeast guaranteed that a large centrally located hub city would rise up eventually.

That's right. The railways would have been built anyway, a terminus would have been determined, and that terminus most likely would have been located in the Georgia frontier south of the Blue Ridge.
It also most likely it would have been created from nothing, since existing municipal governments were very reluctant to take on the dirty, industrial environment that the railroad yards would have brought.

[oobanks]

If another Big City in North GA would have taken Shape, I would have to put my Money on Decatur being the Top dog. It's only a few miles East of present day Atlanta anyway, has that Structure and Layout of an Urban City even though is a Burb! Marietta would be further down on my list

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by oobanks

If another Big City in North GA would have taken Shape, I would have to put my Money on Decatur being the Top dog. It's only a few miles East of present day Atlanta anyway, has that Structure and Layout of an Urban City even though is a Burb! Marietta would be further down on my list

Decatur never wanted the railroads, which was the entire raison d'etre for Atlanta.

"The county seat of DeKalb County, Decatur was founded in 1822 and named after Stephen Decatur, a naval hero most noted for his service in the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812. Even in its early days, residents preferred a small-town feel; when a railroad wanted to make the town the final stop on its line, residents rejected the offer. The railroad then moved to the settlement that would become Atlanta."

Decatur, GA: What It's Like to Live Here | GAC

[Newsboy]

Originally Posted by LovinDecatur

Decatur never wanted the railroads, which was the entire raison d'etre for Atlanta.

"The county seat of DeKalb County, Decatur was founded in 1822 and named after Stephen Decatur, a naval hero most noted for his service in the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812. Even in its early days, residents preferred a small-town feel; when a railroad wanted to make the town the final stop on its line, residents rejected the offer. The railroad then moved to the settlement that would become Atlanta."

Decatur, GA: What It's Like to Live Here | GAC

Fayetteville fought long and hard to get a railroad line, finally succeeding in the 1880s with a route running from downtown Atlanta south through Hapeville, Riverdale and Kenwood to Fayetteville, where it then continued on to Zebulon and a temporary terminus at Fort Valley (extending the line further south was planned but never materialized).

By the early 1900s Fayetteville had become a boomtown, and Fayette County showed promise of attracting industry and finally growing beyond its impoverished agricultural economy. Alas, then came the Great Depression and the boll weevil and the bottom fell out. In the 1930s, Southern Railways abandoned the Fayetteville line which had long-lasting effects for decades to come. Indeed, the population of Fayette County was higher in 1920 than it was in 1970. The tracks themselves were long ago pulled up, but the historic depots in Kenwood, Fayetteville and Inman all remain.


http://www.abandonedrails.com/Atlanta_to_Fort_Valley